Newtown
girls win as Schulz
nets pair

News-Times, The (Danbury, CT)

Published
8:00 pm EDT, Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Schulz, Newtown High's All-New England forward, was twice Tuesday able to slip through Masuk's normally formidable defense. Each time, she made her shot count, scoring twice in the second half to lead Newtown to a 3-2 victory in a South-West Conference midseason girls soccer showdown at Masuk between the top two teams in the league.

Schulz's second goal, 13 minutes into the second half, was the game-winner as Newtown (7-0-1, 5-0-1) remained the lone unbeaten team in the league, handing Masuk (5-2, 5-1) its first league loss. Newtown also defeated Masuk, 2-0, in a non-league game to open the season.

Schulz had plenty of help, though, as Newtown played what coach Marc Kenney called its best game of the season.

"Everyone played well," Kenney said. "Collectively, it's the best game we played all year with all 11 players."

Over the past few seasons, Masuk and Newtown have brought out the best in each other, and Tuesday's game was no exception. Masuk had the better of play in the first half, which ended in a 1-1 tie, and pressed furiously after Schulz's go-ahead goal, but failed to capitalize on two excellent scoring chances in the final six minutes.

"Masuk is Masuk," Kenney said. "You're never comfortable."

Megan Hansen, who gave Newtown a 1-0 lead nine minutes into the game when she collected a direct kick from midfield by Gabby Nastri and beat Masuk goalie Claire Pinciaro, said both teams raise the level of their play when they face each other.

"It brings out the best qualities in both teams," Hansen said.

Masuk coach Eleanor Brainard, whose team shut out Newtown four times last season while going 3-0-1 in those games, also praised the quality of both teams' play.

"The thing that I like about this is that it's always a good game whenever you step on the field," she said. "Whatever the outcome is, it's great to see two really good girls programs come out and play at that level. I enjoy it -- it makes you crazy a little bit, but I enjoy it."

Masuk, which outshot Newtown 9-4 in the first half, had numerous scoring chances, including a long cross by Cathy Regan which hit the crossbar just two minutes into the game, but failed to capitalize until Kayla Howden got behind the Newtown defense and scored the equalizer 27 minutes into the game.

At the other end of the field, Hansen and Schulz worked the ball back and forth beautifully time after time, resulting in more quality scoring chances, including a shot by Hansen that hit the right goalpost late in the half.

Early in the second half, though, Schulz didn't need any help, as she singlehandedly beat three Masuk defenders, turned and fired the ball past Pinciaro. Masuk came right back, though, tying the score two minutes later on Howden's second goal.

Schulz answered back with the game-winner, though, by outracing the Masuk defense to a ball that Tania Domingos lofted toward the Masuk goal from near midfield.

"I just knew I had to run onto it and go," Schulz said.

Domingos was once again a dominating presence at times at midfield. But it wasn't just the Newtown stars who did the work. Newtown won a majority of the 50-50 balls, and its defense, anchored by Nastri, managed to survive nine corner kicks by Masuk, many of which Regan placed dangerously in the box.

Kenney said Masuk's constant offensive pressure was due more to its talent than to any defensive breakdowns by Newtown.

"I don't think we played poorly on defense," Kenney said. "Masuk does a good job of getting multiple players forward. They had chances where they had four or five players in the box. That's tough to defense."

Newtown, ranked No. 2 in the state in the Hartford Courant rankings, now has the inside track on the No. 1 seed for the SWC playoffs as it heads into the second half of its season with its toughest league opponents behind it.

"We have to keep up our good name right now," Schulz said.

As long as Schulz and Hansen click up front like they did Tuesday, Newtown will be a tough team to beat.

"Those two were phenomenal, really really really good playing together," Kenney said. "We've been focusing on that the last couple of days in practice. I've been wanting them to play together. Once we started playing with two front players as opposed to sort of two separate front players on islands, we're really dangerous."